Maryland's greatest escapes, from bulls to blimps

Jimmy May / Associated Press

Despite manufacturers’ assurances in the strength of the cables and an emergency deflation feature, this airborne missile-detecting device escaped its moorings at Aberdeen Proving Ground in October, getting halfway through Pennsylvania before its final descent. The blimp didn’t waste a moment of its short-lived freedom — its 6,700-foot tether snapped power lines along the way, ensuring 20,000 people without power won’t soon forget it.

Joseph Holmes earned more than one nickname in his life of crime. He first rose to infamy in the 1940s as the “Dinner-Time Burglar” for breaking into affluent Roland Park homes in the evenings, but his real claim to fame was a spectacular prison break. It took him 20 months of steady labor to dig a 70-foot tunnel under the Maryland Penitentiary using a stick with a nail attached to the end. Tunnel Joe’s 1951 escape, however, was brief — police caught him committing a petty robbery a few weeks later.

What’s as impressive as a football field-size blimp fleeing hundreds of miles from its moorings? Or as bizarre as not one, but two instances of slaughterhouse bulls/steer getting loose in the streets of Baltimore in the past two years? Here’s our list of Maryland’s greatest escapes.